The Wall Street Lab

This week we are talking about the placement agent business in the alternative investments space. We could not have imagined finding a better person to discuss this topic with than Charles “Charlie” Eaton, the Founder of Eaton Partners and one of the pioneers of the whole industry. Charlie founded Eaton Partners in 1983 as one of the first and now one of the largest placement agents in the world. Eaton Partners was acquired by Stifel Financial in 2016. According to Eaton Partners’ website, it has been widely recognized as the world’s leading placement agent. Since the firm’s founding in 1983, they have participated in raising over $100 billion of institutional capital across more than 125 highly differentiated investment funds, including private equity, private credit, real estate, real assets and hedge funds. Eaton Partners currently employs over 80 professionals in nine offices worldwide. We speak about the early days at Eaton Partners and how Charlie was able to experience first hand how the industry has